Transcript of "Mint.com dramatically increases conversions and reach by embracing social media marketing with StrongMail Influencer"

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Mint.com Case Study
Leading online personal finance service
grows user base with StrongMail Influencer
“StrongMail Influencer has enabled Launched in 2007, Mint.com has quickly become America’s #1
Mint.com to better leverage social online personal finance service, attracting more than 1.5 million
media to significantly increase registered users – with thousands more joining each month.
The company’s phenomenal growth stems from its fresh, easy
conversions and expand our reach.”
and intelligent approach to money management, which has
Donna Wells
Chief Marketing Officer
earned it numerous industry awards from Kiplinger, Money
Mint.com and PC Magazine, as well as accolades from Wall Street Journal,
Business Week and others.
Mint.com allows its users to easily create a summary of their
spending habits, build a budget and monitor performance against
personal financial goals. The simplicity of the service, combined with
its unparalleled value for managing personal finances, has attracted
a passionate community of users. In order to grow its business even
Mint.com
Mountain View, CA
faster, Mint.com researched ways to accelerate referrals from its loyal
www.mint.com customer base, and ultimately decided to enhance its use of social
Industry media in its email marketing.
Financial Services
Employees
35 Testing to Optimize Campaign Strategy
Members All three social programs asked email recipients to share their positive experience
1.5 million with Mint.com by referring their friends. The email creative for each test was the
Return on Investment same, only the offer was different. The first test offered the opportunity to win
1 new user for every 2.6 invite clicks
a “Minty Green” iPod Nano once three
Key Benefits of their friends became Mint.com users.
> Real-time visibility into campaign performance
> Identify key influencers The second offered exclusive access to
> Expand reach the Mint.com Beta Testing Program, also
> Increase new user conversions
in return for three new users signing
Products & Services up. The third test served as a control
StrongMail® Influencer™
group offering no reward, but still
asking recipients to send an invitation
to their friends.
Of the three offers tested, exclusive access to the
Mint.com Best Test Program was the clear winner.

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Mint.com launched the three variants to a percentage of their total list and then used the
StrongMail Influencer dashboard to track the results in real-time. Using StrongMail Influencer,
they could see which offer generated the most activity, and within that activity, which
members shared the most invitations and generated the most new users.
The test mailing revealed the “exclusive access” treatment to be the clear favorite among
Mint.com users. As a result, Mint.com deployed the winning campaign to the balance of
the broader email target segment.
Expanding Reach and Conversions
The typical objective of any socialized email program is to increase reach and conversion, and
the reasoning is simple. Intrinsically, socialized email is about extending the reach of a current
“StrongMail’s approach of email program. Finding a way to motivate customers to share an offer with their network has
tapping social motivators to the potential to grow your email file, subscription lists and customer base exponentially.
drive sharing behavior was Socialized email is also very effective at driving conversions, and that’s driven by two factors:
(1.) social networks are filled with friends who have similar likes and interests. Consequently,
unique in the marketplace, and the ideal Mint.com customer is likely to have several members of his or her extended social
network (personal address book contacts, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc.) who also fit
its easy integration with our
the typical Mint.com customer profile. (2.) Today, consumers turn to social media when making
existing email program and purchase decisions. When brands are introduced to consumers via a customer’s own personal
network, the brand benefits from increased trust and credibility, increasing the likelihood of
comprehensive testing and
conversion. The results generated by the winning campaign exemplify these concepts.
tracking made it the logical
choice for us.”
Donna Wells
Chief Marketing Officer
Mint.com
Mint.com Influencers sent an average of 5 invitations each via email and
various social networks.

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The Results
The winning “exclusive access” email was opened by 48% of those mailed. Of those, over
10% became “Influencers” for the Mint.com brand by sharing the invitation with, on average,
5 friends each, significantly expanding its reach.
The increase in reach aside, these invitations generated an unprecedented 61% click-through
rate. More importantly for Mint.com’s bottom line, every 2.6 invite clicks led to one new Mint.
com user. This socialized email campaign was extremely successful for generating new users.
“The results from incorporating StrongMail Influencer into our email programs showed us
what is truly possible when you effectively tap the power of the social web,” said Wells.
“For Mint.com, using StrongMail Influencer paid off in thousands of new users.”
“The results from incorporating
> Over 10% of those mailed become Mint.com Influencers
StrongMail Influencer into our
> Over 5 invitations were sent by each of these Influencers, on average
email programs showed us
> 61% of these Friends clicked-through to investigate Mint.com what is truly possible when
> 1 new user joined for every 2.6 invite clicks you effectively tap the power
of the social web. For Mint.com,
using StrongMail Influencer paid
About StrongMail® Influencer™
StrongMail® Influencer™ injects rich social networking functionality into any email
off in thousands of new users.”
communication – allowing email marketers to extend the reach of their programs by Donna Wells
Chief Marketing Officer
creating engaging experiences that invite consumers to share their brand or offer with Mint.com
friends, relatives and colleagues. By leveraging social motivators when developing the
campaign strategy, StrongMail helps ensure that recipients stay connected to the brand,
and consumers are motivated to share the campaign with their trusted friends.
Each Influencer-enabled campaign is powered by a viral marketing engine that offers real-
time optimization of creative executions to maximize virality and impact. The dashboard
allows marketers to activity participate in the virality of your message, not just track it.
Use it to influence the conversation, multiply your reach, and drive ROI.